Onychomycosis Burden of Illness and Successful Treatment With a New Topical Antifungal

Onychomycosis is a very common condition seen by nurse practitioners. It is important to treat patients early to avoid potential complications, spreading disease, and greater suffering and pain. It continues to be challenging for us to manage, with limited treatment choices, disappointing efficacy results, and with recurrence or reinfection commonplace. Onychomycosis presents important nursing implications with the risk for further complications especially in our patients with diabetes and with peripheral vascular disease. It may be a trigger for asthma attacks in rare cases and be a source of cellulitis. Treatment options include topical care without systemic side effects but poor efficacy and more effective systemic treatments with possible limiting side effects. The purposes of this article are to discuss the challenges of treating onychomycosis and to review the development program of a new topical antifungal, efinaconazole topical solution, 10%, an important treatment option for our patients with onychomycosis.